Kelly Reichardt

In addition to this realist style, her films often focus on characters who are living in the margins of society, who are not usually represented on screen, or who are in search of a better quality of life and place in the world. She is interested in characters "who don’t have a net, who if you sneezed on them, their world would fall apart". Her films tackle distinct aspects of the American experience that are seldom explored by the commercial film industry. Eric Kohn (from Indiewire) supports this sentiment in his description of her films as "a mesmerising statement on the solitude of everyday life for working-class people who want something better. They’re trapped between a mythology of greatness and the personal limitations that govern their drab realities. By attending to atmosphere and attitude as much as plot, Reichardt has quietly become one of the country’s best chroniclers of the American experience".

Her films often also contain references to modern times and political events. In an interview, she discusses the parallels of Meek’s Cutoff to modern times, saying "Here was the story of this braggart leading a bunch of people into the desert without a plan and becoming completely reliant on the locals who are socially different from him and who he is suspicious of. All of which seemed relevant to the moment" (in reference to the Iraq War and George Bush). Reichardt has confirmed in many interviews that the character of Meek is intentionally written to be similar with Bush. Wendy and Lucy also reflects the economic hardships that affected millions of Americans (particularly women, whom the film suggests are affected more than men) as a result of the high costs and collateral damage from the war.  

Furthermore, critics have noted that her films frequently have ambiguous endings that leave the audience hanging and unsatisfied. Xan Brooks (from The Guardian) uses the examples of "wonky Kurt, left wandering city streets at the end of Old Joy, hapless Wendy, still looking for Alaska, or Meek’s Cutoff’s lost pioneers, forever strung between triumph and disaster. These films do not so much resolve as dissolve. They leave us dangling, forced to write their third acts in our heads”. Reichardt elaborates on this, saying "Maybe I’m suspicious of absolutes. I mean, yes, there is something satisfying about watching an old film when the music rises up and the words come at you – The End. But it would seem absurd to do that at the end of one of my films. It would just make them feel lopsided, because they’re all so short, they cover so little time. We don’t know where these people were before. We spent a week with them and then on they went".

Reichardt's film Certain Women is based on Maile Meloy's 2009 collection of short stories, Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It, and was shot in March/April 2015 in Montana. Michelle Williams, Laura Dern, and Kristen Stewart are starring. Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA) bought the rights to distribution. The film premiered January 24, 2016 at the Sundance Film Festival. Reichardt won the top award at the 2016 London Film Festival for Certain Women.

In October 2016, Reichardt revealed that for her next film she will be collaborating with author Patrick deWitt in an adaptation of his novel Undermajordomo Minor, which could possibly be shot outside of the U.S. In October 2018, it was announced Reichardt had put Undermajordomo Minor on hold and would instead reunite with Raymond to direct First Cow, an adaptation of his novel The Half-Life.

In 2013, her film Night Moves debuted in competition at the 70th Venice International Film Festival. The film was considered a shift in tone from her other slower and more melancholic films due to the story suggesting a more intense thriller about a secret plot to blow up a dam.

She then directed Meek's Cutoff, a Western starring Michelle Williams. It competed for the Golden Lion at the 67th Venice International Film Festival in 2010.

For her next film, Wendy and Lucy, she and Jon Raymond adapted another story from Livability. The film explores the themes of loneliness and hopelessness through the story of a woman looking for her lost dog. The film was released in December 2008 and earned Oscar buzz for lead actress Michelle Williams. It was nominated for Best Film and Best Female Lead at the Independent Spirit Awards.

In 2006, she completed Old Joy, based on a short story in Jon Raymond's collection Livability. Daniel London and singer-songwriter Will Oldham portray two friends who reunite for a camping trip to the Cascades and Bagby Hot Springs, near Portland, Oregon. The film won awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Rotterdam International Film Festival, and Sarasota Film Festival. Notably, it was the first American film to win the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival. Neil Kopp won the Producer's Award at the 2007 Independent Spirit Awards for his work on Old Joy and Paranoid Park.

In 1999, she completed her sophomore feature, Ode, based on Herman Raucher's novel Ode to Billy Joe. Next, she made two short films, Then a Year, made in 2001, and Travis, which deals with the Iraq War, in 2004. In these two films, critics have noted that she makes clear her displeasure with the Bush administration and their handling of the Iraq War in a subtle manner that she often does.

She made her feature film debut with River of Grass (1994), and subsequently directed a series of films set and filmed in Oregon: the dramas Old Joy (2006) and Wendy and Lucy (2008); the Western Meek's Cutoff (2010); and the thriller Night Moves (2013). In 2016, Reichardt wrote and directed the Montana-set drama Certain Women.

Her debut film River of Grass was released in 1994. It was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards, as well as the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. It was named as one of the best films of 1995 by the Boston Globe, Film Comment, and The Village Voice. Reichardt then had trouble making another feature film, saying "I had 10 years from the mid-1990s when I couldn’t get a movie made. It had a lot to do with being a woman. That’s definitely a factor in raising money. During that time, it was impossible to get anything going, so I just said, ‘Fuck you!’ and did Super 8 shorts instead."

Kelly Reichardt (/ˈ r aɪ k ɑːr t / ; born March 3, 1964) is an American screenwriter and film director. She is known for her minimalist-style films, many of which deal with working class characters in small, rural communities.

Reichardt was born in 1964 and raised in Miami, Florida. She developed a passion for photography when she was young. Her parents were law enforcement officers who separated when she was young. She earned her MFA at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Aside from working as a director, she also makes money by teaching at several liberal arts colleges.